KUALA LUMPUR: Young entrepreneurs have great potential to be global players, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the Wild Digital Conference today.
During an informal question-and-answer session with Catcha Group co-founder and chief executive officer Patrick Grove, Najib said the government believed in thriving the Internet economy with various schemes offered to online entrepreneurs.
“I had a role in it (as) in 2004, when I was the deputy prime minister. I decided to convince the government to improve the high speed broadband penetration. It has actually exceeded our target of 50 per cent penetration by 2010 and is now more than 70 per cent.
“Recently, during the Sarawak election, I visited a ‘kek lapis’ maker who posted pictures of her holiday in France. She can do it by selling kek lapis and venturing into e-commerce.
“I’m excited about schemes such as e-usahawan and e-rezeki by MDEC (Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation) and I want to push young entrepreneurs to venture into e-commerce.
"They have great potential to be global champions in years to come,” he said, as Grove shared several pictures Najib had posted in social media including the one taken during an event by MDEC.
Najib told the audience that with the growing usage of social media, the political scene had also evolved from when he first started his political career 40 years ago.
“It is different and more challenging than how it was 40 years ago. Back then, people asked for basic necessities like electricity but today, people, especially in urban areas, are more demanding because of the eco-system,” he said.
During the session, Najib, who is an avid social media user, also took a selfie with the audience and tweeted the picture onstage.